Earland Khan's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

The dark water spat the three brothers out inside the sunken castle. Earland Khan found his feet on a floor of golden stone. Algae hung from the walls. Coral grew where torches once burned. Ahead stood a great hall, and at its end waited a throne. Earland stepped toward it, the three keys still warm in his hand. This castle was his prize. He would rule it. He would raise it from the deep and build his coral city at last. Then the throne moved. What Earland had taken for carved decoration pulled loose from the wall. A huge marble kraken uncoiled above the seat. Coral crusted its pale, cracked hide. A golden crown circled its head. One stone eye rolled open and fixed on Earland. He froze. "The last guard," he said. "They saved the worst for the door I need most." Brave Khan spat water and cracked his knuckles. Fire already curled around his fists, hissing against the wet air. "Marble again," he said. "We broke the first one. We break this one." But Jimmy Khan gripped his wooden staff and shook his head. The old hermit had read every guardian before this. "Look at the floor," Jimmy said. "No soil. My roots need earth. There is none here." Earland's stomach dropped. Their proven trick would not work. A tentacle swept the hall. Earland dove behind a pillar. Stone shattered where he'd knelt. He watched the kraken drag itself forward on marble arms, slow and heavy. Then he saw the cracks in its hide, thin lines running deep from ages under the sea. Water could open those cracks. "Jimmy, the coral on its back!" Earland shouted. "Bind that, not the floor!" Jimmy stabbed his staff at the living coral clinging to the kraken's shoulders. Green light poured in. The coral swelled and gripped, holding the beast's arms tight to its own body. The kraken strained and cracked its crown against the ceiling. Earland raised his coral staff. He pulled every drop of water in the hall into a rope and drove it into the cracks. Then he froze it hard. Ice split the marble wider. The kraken shuddered. "Now, Brave!" Earland cried. Brave Khan ran up a fallen pillar and pressed both burning hands to the frozen wounds. Hot fire met cold ice met old stone. The marble screamed and burst. Cracks raced across the whole body. The great kraken broke apart and crashed down in white chunks. Dust and water swirled where it had loomed. Earland climbed over the rubble to the throne. He sat. The seat was cold and grand and his. His brothers stood in the wrecked hall, breathing hard. Then Earland felt the floor tremble beneath him. The broken kraken's fall had cracked the castle itself. Somewhere below, water began to roar. The hall he had just won was starting to sink deeper into the dark.